In cases of serious/prolonged gastrointestinal infections, faecal samples are collected and sent to Statens Serum Institut (SSI) for culture. In Denmark, infections caused by the following zoonotic bacteria are notifiable:
Salmonella
Campylobacter
Yersinia
Shigella
VTEC - E. coli
Registration of human cases
The number of human gastrointestinal infections is registered centrally at SSI and an overview of the annual occurrence is presented under human cases. More detailed data on weekly/ monthly occurrence of the most common gastro intestinal infections are available on SSI's Gastro Enteritis Monitor (GERM).
Outbreaks
The epidemiological connection between several human cases is not always obvious and cases may therefore be registered as sporadic even though they may in fact be part of an outbreak.
For example, 30 people living in different parts of the country could become infected with Salmonella from the same batch of meat. However, since the meat has been distributed to the whole country and only few patients may have visited a doctor/hospital, the connection between the patients may be almost impossible to identify. |
